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Badge of Dishonor
"Badge of Dishonor" is the eighteenth episode of Miami Vice's fourth season. The episode premiered on March 18, 1988. Summary Crockett & Tubbs feel an undercover officer of a Metro unit is responsible for a series of murders. Plot Tubbs is heading for a drug deal with a man named Escobar, with both the squad and a SRT team watching. Tubbs confirms the quality of the drugs, then the team identifies themselves as police and begin shooting, killing all the dealers but not Tubbs, who manages to hide in the water until they leave. Tubbs turns around to see a homeless woman who saw all. At OCB, Castillo advises South Beach has jurisdiction over the river (where the bust went down) and they have a SRT to clean up the area. Lt. Arturo Dominguez (Reni Santoni), head of South Beach SOS, stops by to say the killings weren't done by any of his team, that the weapons and other police paraphernalia were stolen three weeks earlier, and it could be gang-related. Crockett & Castillo feel a leak is present, and it's not from OCB. Dominguez leaves, the team discusses--and dismisses--Dominguez' theory of gang involvement, because the dead dealers' bodies were stripped of all their bling (which gangs wouldn't touch). Castillo wants Crockett & Tubbs to check out the location where the police uniforms were stolen and Gina, Trudy & Switek to run background checks on the SOS team. South Beach pulls over another dealer named Morega who tells them he's paid them four times this month, and when he asks if they need more money they shoot him down. The quartermaster's office's alarm system was bypassed by the burglars, and the checks on the SRT find nine of them were hired since 1980 and are cubanos. Castillo wants them checked for juvenile records. Morega's body is found and Crockett & Tubbs arrive at the scene. When they do, Tubbs notices the same homeless woman that was at the meet where the killings took place, Tubbs follows, and finds she's Montana Stone (Michele Shay), South Beach SOS. Montana is undercover at the waterfront, among the homeless that live there. Tubbs asks her about a report on the killings, she indicated it was filed but Dominguez never passed it on to the Vice squad. Juvenile records show four of the SOS members (Andohar, Merez, Colon & Perez, who were passing out money while their records were reviewed) were in the same gang in Little Havana, and have long rap sheets, but were able to get on the force due to pressure to hire more minorities. Crockett pulls an arrest report on Colon signed by Dominguez, and Castillo sends Crockett & Tubbs to see him at his home address, which turns out to be a luxury yacht, then later Dominguez shows up, in a luxury Mercedes. Crockett & Tubbs speak to him, ask him how he can afford the yacht on a Lieutenant's salary, and suspect he's involved in the killings. He says "he married well", claims there's a piece missing in his investigation, and he invites them to his office the next day to review his reports. Later someone breaks into South Beach's office to take some files, then Montana stops by the four cops' warehouse to pick up her share of the take. Crockett & Tubbs stop by Dominguez' office (then closes his blind when one of the cops gets nosy), they find six recent dealer killings, which were assumed to be gang/drug related until a snitch told him cops were doing the killings. Dominguez didn't believe it until the snitch ended up dead later, and then when Tubbs was ambushed that confirmed it, and they were hitting dealers SOS had under surveillance. Tubbs discovers Montana has access to Dominguez' files, which disturbs him, and they get a list of their active cases so they can try to outguess the hitters. Later that night, Dominguez and his wife are murdered by the four SOS cops. Castillo, Crockett & Tubbs review the South Beach case files and find six of the last eight river hits Montana has written a report on, and suspect she is the lookout. Tubbs goes to see Montana, who's giving food to the homeless people, informs her of Dominguez' death, leans on her but gets nothing. Montana calls Colon (Nick Corri) and tells him she's getting out, as she wanted no part of the Dominguez murder, but Colon tells her she has to help on one more hit or she's the next one dead. Tubbs catches Montana going through files and arrests her. Tubbs speaks to Montana against the advice of her PD, going through the history of how her & Colon went from a four-key bust that Colon kept two keys (and threatened to take Montana down with him if she told) to busting nickel & dime dealers to using the SOS intelligence files to knock off dealers and keep their blow, cash, and bling, taking down $200K-$300K a pop. Montana got 20% of all takes, and agrees to a deal, only if her take (which she put into a trust fund) is used to take care of the homeless people she's lived with. Montana agrees to bring Tubbs in as a dealer to help bring down the dirty cops. They get in, however Tubbs' cover is blown by a cop that saw him in Dominguez' office, and then they suspect she was involved, then the vice cops storm the place, killing Colon, but not before he shoots Montana, who dies in Tubbs' arms. Her money is used for Montana's Soup Kitchen, to help the homeless at the riverfront. Cast *Don Johnson as Metro-Dade Detective James "Sonny" Crockett *Philip Michael Thomas as Metro-Dade Detective Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs *Saundra Santiago as Metro-Dade Detective Gina Calabrese *Michael Talbott as Metro-Dade Detective Stan Switek *Olivia Brown as Metro-Dade Detective Trudy Joplin *Edward James Olmos as Metro-Dade Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo Guest Stars *Michele Shay as South Beach Detective Montana Stone *Nick Corri as South Beach Detective Colon *Reni Santoni as South Beach Lieutenant Arturo Dominguez Co-Starring *D. Christian Gottshall as Bloom *Rudy Marrocco as Detective *Julio Oscar Mechoso as Escobar *Victor Rivers as Mendez *Mel Shrawder as Bundy *Diane Tiller as Mrs. Dominguez *Anwar Zayden as Alfredo Morega *Anna Birden and Joanna Rolle as Prisoners "Ripped From The Headlines" *This episode shows the plight of the homeless, and the extent some would go to help them out, though using clean money would be better. Notes *This is the final new episode broadcast in the Friday 9:00 time slot until February 3, 1989. *The plot (rogue police officers running unauthorized raids to collect drugs and drug money) is similar to the episode "Knock Knock, Who's There?", in that case the "agents" were hired by a lone rogue ATF agent. *This is the second time OCB has dealt with bad South Beach police, the first was in "Whatever Works". *South Beach had the appearance of a blighted, neglected area in 1988. During the time Miami Vice was on the air, a reclamation project began that has turned South Beach into a mecca for celebrities. *Castillo mentions the (Arthur) McDuffie riots back in 1980, where five Miami-Dade policemen beat McDuffie (who had a list of traffic offenses and a suspended license at the time) to death after claiming he was fleeing from a routine traffic stop. The officers were all acquitted (similar to the Rodney King case 13 years later) and Miami burned for two days until the National Guard and curfews restored order. *Barbra Striesand made a uncredited walkby in the scene where Crockett & Tubbs pull up to Dominguez' yacht the first time. Don Johnson was dating Barbra at the time, and the two of them would collaborate on a song "Til I Loved You" in 1989. *This is one of very few "Tubbs episodes" in Season 4; Tubbs' reduced involvement is one of the common criticisms of the season. Music *"Glory! Glory!" by Underworld (opening at stakeout) *"Eyes of a Stranger" by The Payola$ (Tubbs follows Montana) Quotes *"They (the gangs) deal with the money, the coke, but they'll walk away from a body that has $10,000 worth of ice on its' fingers!" -- Crockett about Dominguez' "gang theory" *"Great, couple of bad apples set back minority recruiting another 400 years!" -- Tubbs after hearing about the South Beach SOS' rap sheets Category:Miami Vice Season 4 Episodes